MALLOWS. 



(Jews Mallow.} 

 MALVACEAE. Corchorus Olitorius. 



F the several varieties of mallow native in Syria, the 

 one above named seems to be beyond doubt the kind 

 referred to by Job, (xxx. 4:) &quot;But now they that are 

 younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I 

 would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my 

 flock. For want and famine they were solitary ; fleeing into 

 the wilderness in former time desolate and waste : who cut up 

 mallows by the bushes ... for their meat.&quot; The mallow-leaves 

 have been in later times used as pot-herbs; and in A.D. 1600 

 it was written in Purchas s Pilgrims, &quot;After the shower, 

 while our horses were preparing, we walked into the fields 

 near unto the church, [of Lacmihe,] and saw many poor people 

 gathering mallows and three-leaved grasse. I asked them 

 what they did with it; and they answered that it was all 

 their food, and they did eate it. Then we took pi tie on them, 

 and gave them bread, which they received very joyfully, and 

 blessed God that there was bread in the world, and said that 

 they had not seen bread the space of many months.&quot; It is 

 said that this mallow is still eaten in Egypt and Arabia. 

 There is a podded mallow, the hibiscus esculentus of Linnaeus, 



109 



